Read a cover feature on me in the Bridport Times magazine September 2018.
My Practice
Since 2007 my ideal working method has involved focusing for several months on a series of ambitious commissioned paintings. My practice starts with creating preparatory sketches, along with photographs and collages inspired by the location in question.
Commissioned Paintings
When I start work on the final piece, I prepare the canvas, linen or flax in the traditional manner, using rabbit skin glue and oil primer. I then begin to build up my paintings with several layers of oil paint using my unique process that is strongly influenced by my early experience of watercolour landscape painting, plein air oil painting, as well as several years as an Abstract painter. Thus using thin glazes of oil colour, allowing the luminosity of the white, coloured or dark ground to influence the quality of the resulting surface details. The immediate, expressive marks I learnt in my oil plein air experience bring a sense of the 'quick light' as Alex Katz describes it. The large washes of colour gradation across my paintings originated from my interest in Colour Field painting, in particular Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko.
My personal ongoing series of paintings is mainly focused within a ten mile radius of my studio, allowing me to visit familiar locations in immediate responce to the weather and throughout the seasons.These locations include, most recently, Eggardon Hill, Allington Hill, Lewesdon Hill, the Bride valley, Salway Ash and North Bowood.
I typically ask for eight months for an individual commissioned painting, while my personal paintings might be realised either relatively quickly, though they are often resolved over a couple of years. This approach allows me to maintain a high level of excellence in my practice, without working with unncecessary haste to create my paintings, which allows me to create just the mood I want to achieve.
By 2007 I had built up a private collector base that has allowed me to focus exclusively on creating a series of ambitious landscape paintings that I have now documented in my book 'Kit Glaisyer - The Marshwood Vale & Beyond'. If you would like to view my current work or to commission a painting, please contact me or make an appointment to visit my Bridport studio & gallery.
My Studio & Gallery
I’m currently based at 11 Downes Street, Bridport, Dorset, UK DT6 3JR and I open my Gallery from 10-4pm every Wednesday and Saturday.
My Background
I grew up in an isolated village in North Dorset, in an ancient landscape of rolling hills, deep valleys, dark woods, and rugged farmland. Without a television in the house, I would instead explore the local countryside, and from an early age went out landscape painting alongside my father.
School
In 1983 I won an Art Scholarship to Sherborne School for Boys, and started tuition under teachers Trevor Boyd and Andrew Stooke.
Art College
I then did my Foundation Studios Degree at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design, followed by starting a Fine Art Degree at Farnham (West Surrey College of Art & Design).
London
However, I was keen to moved to London, which I did in the early 90's, moving in with two other artists, Stuart Free and Justin Hibbs, in a house in Finsbury Park, North London. The following year I moved to a flat in Muswell Hill, which also served as my studio, and the following year I started to share a large studio in Camberwell, South London, with artist Rufus Knightwebb. A couple of years later we then started Long Lane Studios, in Borough, South London.
London Practice
When I first moved to London I was working as a figurative painter, mainly influenced by Rembrandt, Ingres, Picasso, Matisse and Soutine. I first worked on a series of self portraits, always prefering to express my direct experience in my art, rather than over conceptualisation. Then I began a series of figurative paintings of romantic couples, but I found my subject matter was too limited by my rather unsatisfactory personal relationships!
Abstract Paintings
Then, a huge change occured in my work. This followed from several visits to the exhibition Gerhard Richter, "Painting in the 90's" exhibition at Anthony D'Offay Gallery in 1995. These uncompromising absctract paintings seemed to open up entirely new options in how I could use paint, colour, and surface, utilising my own form of 'process' painting. I thus began to develop my own language of Abstract painting, which I would continue for five years.
Dorset
In 1998 I was on holiday in the West Country when I stumbled across the Oakhayes Art Residency in Symundsbury, West Dorset. The residency had started as the West Dorset School of Art in 1985 and had run as such for a few years before transforming into a looser art residency taking over most of the small village, attracting artists from across the UK through a regular listing in the Artists Newsletter.
Oakhayes, the Symundsbury Art Residency
I was shown around the residency and immediately offered a room there. Within a month I had cleared out my London studio and moved to Dorset. It was an incredible environment to live in and quite a change from London, but I felt a great sense of potential for myself and my work.
Just a year later, in 1999 the residency shut down, and so I moved into the town of Bridport. With several commissions to complete, I went looking for a new studio, and I found at perfect space on the St Michael's Trading Estate in the town's old rope-making quarter.
St Michael's Studios
At first I was on my own on the first floor of an old rope-making building, with only a biker's bar next door. Then, gradually, more artists began to arrive, and within a few years we had a couple of dozen artists working throughout the building. I began to organise Open events, build a website for the studios, and began to get interest from the local press. I kept my studio there for twenty years, until a fire started one hot July day in 2018 on the top floor. Around a dozen artists lost their studios, and I moved first to a studio in the village of Bradpole, before finding my current studio at 11 Downes Street, in central Bridport.
Artist run spaces
I've always been interested in artist-run spaces. Back in 1994 I organised Open events with Rufus Knightwebb at the Blue Chapel Studios, in Camberwell, which we continued to do at Long Lane Studios in Borough. This venue then grew into a large studio complex, home to many artists, and hosting a number of events, exhibitions & installations.
Artoose Gallery
Back when Oakhayes closed in 1999, one of my colleagues there, artist Douglas McDougall, decided to move to London. A couple of years later, we started the Artoose Gallery in Belsize Park from 2002 to 2004. I was living in Dorset at the time, so I would come up to London every week for a couple of days to help run the space, while helping with the online side of the gallery while I was in Dorset. We put on some popular exhibitions, but eventually found it hard to keep running the gallery alongside our art practices. It would be another twelve years before I started another Artist-run space in Bath, Somerset.
Artistic Transitions
My enthusiasm for Abstract painting had begun to diminish almost as soon as I left London, and thus I began to explore other styles of painting, starting with a series of Urban Landscapes of familiar places in London. I then worked on a series of Petrol Station paintings, before settling on a series of paintings of the Cafe Royal, a run-down old greasy spoon cafe that I passed every day on the 5-minute cycle-ride to my studios.
Drip Figures
This was also the time that I started my series of Drip Figure paintings, which were the natural culmination of my abstract paintings meeting my interest in the figure.
Cinematic Landscape Paintings
However, the Dorset countryside was proving to be my biggest inspiration, and thus I returned once again to landscape painting, drawing strongly from my childhood memories and exploring deep into the locality to produce my distinctive new series of 'Cinematic' landscape paintings.
Bath
Between November 2016 to November 2017 I ran a project space called the Garden Gallery, Great Pulteney Street, Bath, and along with my colleagues Ninah Yesih and Jessica Otterwell we put on monthly Salon events, including artist talks, live music, installations, and exhibitions. We closed the Garden Gallery after that first year, but continued to put on quarterly Pop Up Salon events in Bath, including gigs by George Wilding, Luke De-Sciscio, and Pre Valentino.
Return of the Native
The Garden Gallery was a great project to be involved in, but after twelve months I realised that Bridport was still really the place I wanted to have as my base, especially as West Dorset still held such a dominent inspiration for my paintings.
11 Downes Street
After the fire at St Michael's Studios, I moved to my mother's old house in the village of Bradpole on the outskirts of Bridport for six months. But village life was really not to my liking, and I was lucky to then find a beautiful late Georgian townhouse at 11 Downes Street, in central Bridport, and this became my new studio and gallery in March 2019. I chose the house partly because the ground floor would make an excellent gallery, with large windows overlooking the street.
My Gallery
I now open my Gallery at 11 Downes Street on Wednesdays & Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, and by appointment. I only open two days a week because I like to run the gallery myself as I really enjoy meeting my visitors. Getting out of my studio to meet with my clients and collectors is an important part of my busines, but it's also a distraction from my painting practice, so I figure that two days a week is perfectly adequate and doesn't unduly disrupt my creative process.
So, please do come to visit if you're in Dorset, or get in touch to arrange a studio tour.
CV
This is a list of my Art Education, Studios, Private Exhibitions, and Gallery Exhibitions from 1995-2023, first in London at the Suzanne Ruggles on the Kings Road, and the New Grafton Gallery Barnes; then, from 1999, in Dorset & Devon Galleries such as the Pierrepoint Gallery Bridport and William Pelly Gallery, Lyme Regis. From 2016-17 I ran “The Garden Gallery”, a project space on Great Pulteney Street, in Bath. Since 2019 I’ve run the Bridport Contemporary Gallery at 11 Downes Street, Bridport.
2023 Exhibiting at Bridport Contemporary Gallery
Working on commission “Storms over Eggardon Hill”
Working on commission 'Mid-summer's Eggardon pink horizon"
2022 Exhibiting at Bridport Contemporary Gallery
Working on commission “Mid-summer evening on Eggardon Hill”
2021 Exhibiting at Bridport Contemporary Gallery
Working on commission “January Evening from Eggardon Hill”
Working on commission “Gentle Evening from Eggardon Hill”
Working on commission “An Autumn view in West Milton”
2020 Exhibiting at Bridport Contemporary Gallery
12-month commission “Bluebells on Lewesdon Hill”
2019 Exhibiting at Bridport Contemporary Gallery
Bridport Open Studios at 11 Downes Street, Bridport.
2018 Bridport Open Studios in Bradpole, West Dorset.
8-month commission “An evening in the Offwell Valley, Devon”
2017 "Dorset Magazine Landscape Painters of the Year", Lighthouse Gallery, Poole 17 February - 18 March
Monthly Open Studio, final weekend of the month at Garden Gallery, 48 Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DP
2016 8-month Private Commission "A view near Burton Bradstock"
Bridport Open Studios
2015 "View from Bulbarrow Hill" is Highly Commended at "The Marshwood Vale Awards", Bridport Arts Centre
12-month commission "View from Bulbarrow Hill"
12-month commission "The Last Cafe"
Bridport Open Studios
2014 Exhibited "Dark Cafe" at the "Home in Bridport" exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre
8-month commission "A View near Whitchurch Canonicorum"
Bridport Open Studios
2013 "Kit Glaisyer - The Cinematic Landscape" at the Octagon Gallery, Bath
Working on "Contemporary UK Landscape Painting" with writer Melany Hughes
Bridport Open Studios
2012 Holburne Portrait Prize Finalist, Holburne Museum, Bath
6-month commission "Lewesdon Bluebells"
2011 8-month Private Commissions "Path on Lewesdon Hill"
6-month commission "Dripping Figure"
2010 Produced"25 Bridport Painters & Sculptors" Book with photographer George Wright & writer Lu Orza
8-month commission "Lewesdon Tree"
2009 8-month Private Commission "View from Lewesdon Hill"
6-month commission "Ocean"
2008 8-month Private Commission "Hazy summer across the Marshwood Vale"
2007 "Drip Figures" two-man exhibition at Truman Brewey, London
5-month commission "Path on Allington Hill"
2006 "A Splash of Colour" New Grafton Gallery, Barnes, London
Gallery Artist, William Pelly Gallery, Lyme Regis
Gallery Artist, Pierrepoint Gallery, Bridport
6-month commissions, "Cafe Royal" (series)
2005 Gallery Artist, William Pelly Gallery, Lyme Regis
Gallery Artist, Pierrepoint Gallery, Bridport
6-month commissions, inc. "Cafe Royal" (series)
2004 "On the way to work" solo show at Alsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
Gallery Artist, William Pelly Gallery, Lyme Regis
Gallery Artist, Pierrepoint Gallery, Bridport
Gallery Artist, Artoose Gallery, Belsize Park, London
2003 Gallery Artist, Artoose Gallery, Belsize Park, London
Gallery Artist, Pierrepoint Gallery, Bridport, Dorset
2002 Gallery Artists, Artoose Gallery, Belsize Park, London
2001 "Journey from the Inner City to the Edge of the Sea", 2-Man Exhibition, Gallery 47, London
2000 Private Commission "Large Multicolour Abstract"
"Square Abstracts", Solo Show, Raffles Gallery, Kings Road, London
1999 Started St Michael's Studios, Bridport, Dorset
Private Commissions "6 Large Abstracts"
Gallery Artist, Suzanne Ruggles Gallery, Kings Road, Chelsea, London
1998 Oakhayes Art Community, Symondsbury, Dorset
Gallery Artist, Suzanne Ruggles Gallery, Kings Road, Chelsea, London
1997 Long Lane Studios, Borough, South London
Gallery Artist, Suzanne Ruggles Gallery, Kings Road, Chelsea, London
1995 Blue Chapel Studios, John Ruskin Street, Walworth, South London
1995 "United Abstract Artists" Group Exhibition, Bayswater, West London
1992 Fine Art Degree, Farnham CAD
1991 Foundation Diploma, Bournemouth & Poole CAD